Not Quite New, but New Here

spence13e

According to the app I've been tracking for 60 days now.

I'm 34, and have struggled with poor eating habits my entire life (parents, teach your kids right! I pray mine learn better habits than I did). At 5'10, I left high school and went to Army basic training at 196, which they considered overweight. I left an almost two year stint of active duty, including a 16 month overseas deployment, at 210 or 215. Too much bad food, and I do not like working out.

Then college hit. Went to a small bible college for a year the year after I got home off deployment. The fact that every meal was buffet didn't help. Soon I was well over 240, at 23. That's more or less where I resided for the next nine or so years. Long story short, not quite two years ago, some personal situations spurred putting on another 20 lbs, to put me at an all time high of 263.

I shoe horses for a living, so it's not at all that I'm inactive. However, there's no cardio, it's more like day in, day out strength training to various muscle groups. After two winters of struggling to button my pants and not being able to hardly tuck my long sleeve shirts in, I finally went to the store after getting done early to try on a size bigger pair of jeans. When they had room in the thighs, but not the waist, I said "absolutely no way am I going up two sizes. I refuse."

MFP was on my phone the next morning. That was May 18th. I set it up, and 95% of the work accomplished has been nothing but counting calories. As of this morning, I am down 32 lbs. I have 35 more to go to get back to the 196 I was at when I graduated high school 15 years ago. I did not expect losses to occur to the extent they have, however the settings in the app put me at 1600 cal/day, and I may blow over one day a week (I hate going places where there is food set out!), I can accept that. As I continue to progress, I'll have to start adding some calories back in, I am sure. I don't relish having to think of it, but I believe for the indefinite future, counting is going to be the way I have to go, however I do not care to return to being 263 again. 243 is too much, and when I hit the 20 lbs lost mark, I was amazed how much better I felt.

This is a journey worth taking, and I'm glad to be on it.

kam26001

Welcome aboard and congrats on the 32 lb loss.